Is it appropriate to use a bulleted list in a question? Example:
Which type of flour would you use for the following items: - bread - cake - cookies
Would you put a question mark at the end of each bullet? Would you only use a question mark at the end of the last bullet? Does the sentence need to be re-worded?
9 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
I have now found the phrase “pi the type” in two different books and have an idea of the meaning from the context. I would hope to learn more about the meaning and how it might have originated.
5 comments • Posted in Etymology / History
If our organization is called Help for Kids and we want to use the abbreviation HFK . . . is this correct usage in this sentence: HFK’ activities will start in the summer. With the K standing for Kids and Kids being plural, would this be correct use of the apostrophe at the end of HFK’?
8 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
I have a sentence with which I am struggling because I am not sure if I can use both a colon and semi-colon in it. However, I want everything in one sentence and cannot figure out what other punctuation I should use. Here’s the sentence with names and details altered for anonymity.
“I am indebted to my family, especially my cousins: Jane Smith, my first teacher, without whom I would not be where I am today; and John Smith, my second teacher, who taught me more than he could have possibly imagined.”
The colon is setting up a list and the semi-colon is separating items in the list that contain commas. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
18 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
Am I correct when I teach my students that “as long as” means you’re measuring time, and “so long as” means you’re using it as a conditional?
Hence, “I was here as long as he was” (meaning we were there for the same length of time) and “I will love you so long as you don’t cheat on me” (used for cause and effect situations)
13 comments • Posted in Usage
Isn’t it redundant to say That is the REASON WHY I am here.
Isn’t the ‘reason’ the ‘why’ as well? But how come many people use it?
20 comments • Posted in Style
It seems like I’m seeing, more and more, “believe” and similar words being used as nouns. At first I thought that it was an ESL issue; perhaps in other languages, the same word is used for both “believe” and “belief”. But that explanation is looking less and less plausible. Is it just me, or are other people baffled by this? I don’t understand how any native speaker can confuse the two words. Perhaps there are accents in which they are pronounced the same?
5 comments • Posted in Grammar
I often hear television announcers say “Meantime” when I would say “meanwhile” or “in the meantime.” This seems to be a recent usage. Any comments?
7 comments • Posted in Usage
Is it correct to say “Let’s you and I” or “Let’s you and me”?
16 comments • Posted in Expression
I’m editing a technical manual. The engineers I’m working with have regularly typed amounts which are under one as “.05 inches” or “.67 inches.”
I’ve been of the opinion that this is to be typed “.05 inch” and “.67 inch,” as the amounts are less than one, but I can’t find anything to support either opinion.
Please advise.
17 comments • Posted in Misc
Why is it more appropriate to say the big, red bull was running fast, rather than the red, big bull was running fast?
19 comments • Posted in Expression
I recently gave a class of six year olds a spelling test and saw that many of the children were spelling words with the correct letters but had used capital letters at the beginning, middle or end of a word. Is a word that has the correct letters but some of them are in capitals still considered to be correctly spelled?
13 comments • Posted in Punctuation and Mechanics
The Boston Globe today ran an op-ed with the headline “Perpetrating the Autism Myth.” But on the homepage, they referred to the op-ed with a link that said “TV shows perpetuate the autism myth.” What is the difference between perpetrate and perpetuate as they are used here?
7 comments • Posted in Usage
Do we use “shall have done” followed by second and third persons? I understand that if ‘shall’ comes after second and third persons, it is employed to indicate an obligation or a warning, etc. How about ‘shall have done’?
for example: Company A shall have contributed 50 million dollars to the joint venture.
Is such usage correct? I feel somewhat strange. I understand that if we want to use future perfect tense, we will use “will have done” and in case of first persons “shall” could be adopted instead of “will”. If we want to use subjunctive mood, we will use “should have done”.
“[third persons] shall have done” looks neither future perfect nor an indication of obligations. I think it is wrong. Am I right?
4 comments • Posted in Grammar
My teacher says the sentence “It is urgent Molly prepare a revised copy of the file.” is correct. I think it should be “It is urgent Molly prepares a revised copy of the file.” Molly is singular so it needs a verb ending with a s. Can someone help me?
29 comments • Posted in Usage
I’m wondering about the phrase, “try and.” (Used like this: “I’m going to try and stop him.”)
I know that it’s technically grammatically correct, but is it okay to say it? Would it be better to say, “I’m going to try TO stop him” instead?
62 comments • Posted in Expression
My husband and I disagree on the use of these two words. I say, since we have three children, two girls and a boy, that I can say that “Rebecca is the younger daughter, and the youngest child”. He says that since she is the youngest of all three children, that he can say she is his youngest daughter. I feel that it should be she is the younger daughter since there are only two daughters and of course, she is the youngest child.
HELP!
19 comments • Posted in Grammar
I’ve heard people say “as it were” quite often. It doesn’t even sound wrong to me anymore. But shouldn’t it really be “as it WAS” instead, for proper subject verb agreement?
17 comments • Posted in Expression
Where does that phrase come from and what does it mean?
6 comments • Posted in Expression
I am puzzled by the usage of ‘obliged’ and ‘obligated’. What’s the difference between the two words, which seem to share the same noun form “obligation”?
I could think of two sentences as below:
(1) John Doe is not obligated to do this.
(2) Experts felt obliged to investigate.
What if obligated and obliged are exchanged in the examples? any difference meaning?
Thanks
74 comments • Posted in Usage
